Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal was told to rewrite history textbooks if he ever gets serious about cultivating national integration.

Shafie, who was winding up on points raised during the debate on the Royal Address, was interrupted by Dr Dzulkifli Ahmad (PAS-Kuala Selangor) who suggested that “contemporary destructive communal politics might have originated from distorted historical literature”.

dzulkifli ahmad 100605 “A serious effort like stating real, undistorted facts about the contribution of the left wing movement to the nation’s independence is vital to foster national integration,” said Dzulkifli.

“The government and the academia should not ignore these facts simply because the left had carried out its struggle with arms. They did contribute to the nation’s independence.

“And they were not divided along lines of race but were able to surpass the negativity of communal politics. They were united in their love of their country. The young must know that we have a strong multi-racial tradition.”

shafie apdal pc 310308 shafie Shafie (left) , however, maintained that the facts are stated in history textbooks and that the government does acknowledge the contributions of all parties, including the left, to the nation’s independence.

In this, the minister was backed by Mohd Puad Zarkashi (BN-Batu Pahat) who said the government had never “censored any facts pertaining to the struggle for independence just because certain parties had used arms to carry out their campaign”.

“Mat Kilau and Dato’ Bahaman all used weapons against the British and the history books do state the facts about them. I think this yang berhormat (Dzulkifli) has not read the books,” said Puad.

Johari Abdul (PKR-Sungai Petani) rose to press Shafie on his plans to foster national integration.

He also blasted Malay daily Utusan Malaysia as “a racist paper”. Noting that the newspaper is currently being used in schools as reading material, he said this could result in the integration process being delayed.

Shafie dismissed the “perceptions” of the newspaper, saying that he believes it has no intention of inciting racial hatred.